A Better Way to Harvest Rainwater

Image Gallery Some rain barrel users aren’t making the most of their free rainwater resources. Try our rain barrel setup to make use of the water that would otherwise overflow in a heavy downpour. ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

Water shortages are cropping up everywhere these days — sometimes due to drought, and sometimes just because we draw too heavily on the water resources in many areas, especially with increased development and population growth. As a result, there’s lots of talk about putting rain barrels under downspouts to capture rainwater for watering lawns and gardens. But the truth is that a couple of 50-gallon barrels don’t hold much water. Think about how long it can take to irrigate your garden, compared to the few minutes it would take to use your hose to fill one or two 50-gallon barrels. During an inch of rainfall, more than 900 gallons flows off of a house with a 30-by-50 foot roof. Why not make use of all 900 gallons?

Here’s a low-cost way to move the rain from your roof to where it will do some good, instead of letting most of it overflow and “escape” as soon as the barrel fills up.

1. First, add an extension to a downspout from your house or garage to direct the runoff into a barrel or stock tank. Or cut off a downspout so that you can fit a barrel under it.
2. Now it’s time to make fast-flowing soaker hoses. Drill holes in some old garden hoses and use screw-on caps to plug the ends of the hoses that will not be connected to the barrel. (Note: This setup may not have enough water pressure to work with the kind of porous soaker hoses often sold in garden stores.)
3. Next, head to your local hardware store. Take a sketch to show them what you want to do (see our illustration in the Image Gallery), and have them help you find everything you need: a bulkhead fitting (about 3 inches in diameter) to let water flow out of a hole you’ll drill into your barrel or tank, plus fittings and a manifold with multiple outlets for attaching hoses to the bulkhead.
4. Now cut a hole the size of the bulkhead fitting into the side of your barrel. (If you have a commercially made rain barrel, it may already have a small hole drilled in it with a spigot. Just carve your new hole beside that.) Placing the hole near the bottom of the barrel will work best, so that as the barrel fills with water, the pressure will push the water out through the soaker hoses.
5. Once your hole is carved, install the bulkhead fitting. Then connect it to the manifold. Finally, screw the open ends of your hoses onto the manifold.
6. Place the hoses on whatever area of your garden or lawn you want to water next time it rains. If possible, rake a shallow depression into the surface of your garden rows or beds to help hold the rainwater from the hoses, as it’s flowing into your plants’ root zones.
7. Wait for rain!